One of the classrooms at the newly opened Goddard School of Powhatan. (Images courtesy The Goddard School)
Almost 25 years after opening their first Goddard School franchise in Chesterfield, a local couple has expanded into Powhatan.
Jim and Debbie Womack opened the doors earlier this month on their new Goddard location at 1585 Oakbridge Drive, in a newly constructed, roughly 12,000-square-foot building near Powhatan County’s Oakbridge Business Park.
The franchised chain provides daycare and preschool services to infants through pre-K, as well as serving kindergarten through fifth graders for before- and after-school programming and summer camps.
This is the Womacks’ second current Goddard School and the brand’s eighth in the Richmond region, with the others run by other franchisees.
The Womacks opened their first Goddard School at 10211 Krause Road in Chesterfield in 2002. Debbie Womack told BizSense that the idea came out of them wanting more options for their own, then-school-age children.
After running that school for years, the couple later opened a second Goddard School location in Chester at 13036 Rivers Bend Blvd. They sold it to another franchisee after a few years.
Debbie Womack said her husband Jim felt the region’s growth was moving westward and the pair identified Powhatan as an area in need of more childcare options.
Debbie and Jim Womack
The Womacks purchased the then-vacant, 2-acre parcel on Oakbridge Drive for $400,000, per property records, and started construction in late 2025.
“We decided, as we’re watching the growth go, we wanted to hop in early and try to find a good location,” Debbie Womack said this week. “We just kind of sat on (the land) until we thought it would be a good time for this community, with Midlothian growing out and Powhatan growing.”
The building was designed and constructed by Midlothian-based contractor Katherman & Co. The Womacks have worked with the firm on all three of their Goddard locations. Construction was completed last month. Debbie Womack declined to comment on project costs.
Goddard School of Powhatan spans 11 classrooms, some flex space and multiple play areas.
The school has 48 families enrolled thus far, with room for up to roughly 190 children for its infant through pre-K programming, she said, adding that she and her staff are giving tours to increase enrollment. The school has 16 employees and is adding more teaching staff.
Debbie Womack said much of the Goddard School’s programming is focused on hands-on learning and play, as opposed to a technology-based program, with a focus on things like STEAM subjects, physical education and music appreciation, as well as opportunities for children to learn handwriting and American Sign Language.
She said the school is considering adding a gym to the rear of the building to expand programming for school-age children.
The Goddard School was founded in 1983 in Pennsylvania by Lois Goddard Haines. It began franchising in the late 1990s after it was sold to businessman Anthony A. Martino, and has since grown to around 700 locations across the country, mostly concentrated in Texas, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
The Goddard School has at least 27 open locations in Virginia. In addition to the Womacks’ two locations and the one they sold in Chester, Goddard’s other local schools are in Ashland, Glen Allen, Henrico and Mechanicsville and Midlothian.
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